Customer Reviews

Kentucky Straight: Stories

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dream tinker, Chris Offut, takes us into the woods with a kerosene lamp and holds the light to a place in ourselves we visit even less often. There's no room in these stories for anything but the story being told and there lies the straight, no chaser. If this book was a season it'd be the spring rains. If this book was a car it'd be a tow-truck. If this book was a a museum piece it'd belong in the American Museum of Natural History. After reading the third story in this collection, THE LEAVING ONE, I knew I was going to begin this book again after finishing it. It's difficult to place the corect amount of stars on a book such as this. I'd probably have to give it a planet, like Venus, as well.

A well written short story is my favorite thing to read. Mr. Offutt's book "Kentucky Straight" is full of ones that more than suffice. I enjoy his honesty. He allows the reader to objectively peak around a hickory tree and truly see Appalachia. His stories ring so true, that i would not be surprised if someone from his holler might mistaken them to be fact. Mr. Offutt vividly brings the woods to the reader. I suggest that anyone reading these stories for the first time read them outside, under a shade tree. Xer...

This remarkable collection of stories is well named; it is, indeed, Kentucky, straight. No frills, no gimmicks, no adornment, just a clear voice telling stories that draw a reader in from the first paragraph. "Old of the Moon" took my breath away. "Smokehouse" should be required reading for any boomer tempted to whine their way through mid-life. "Nine-Ball" makes you look at gun racks in pick-up trucks in an entirely new light. In his pure voice, this writer leaves us with extraordinary images: bills of cash twisted around barbs in a stretch of fence; splitting a wooden match and saving half for later; roads not good for hauling things in, but only for taking coal out. Each of the stories in this collection is a gem and this reader found herself thinking about them long after they'd been read.

It doesn't matter if Chris Offutt is a "real" Appalachian or not, what matters is that he's a real person with a real heart that sings out loud in this truly inspirational book of short stories. His perspective is as valid as any, and it all rings true in Kentucky Straight. These stories speak to the soul of people everywhere and you won't find a better collection of truly American stories. I hate to use the "I laughed, I cried, I jumped for joy" clichˇ, but I read this cover to cover over a weekend and yearned for more. As a writer of short fiction, I found Offutt's style to be unique and inspirational.

These stories literally broke my heart....then made it sing. Chris Offutt is a word magician, pure and simple. I loved his memoir, "The Same River Twice" and this collection of stories is as good or better. I can't remember when I've loved an entire collection of short stories more than these. I checked this book out at the library, but will definitely buy a copy for my permanent, never-loan-out collection. This book is a treasure!

If you are considering buying this book, please do. Let's just say that first off. Just get it and we'll go from there.

Why? Well, Chris Offutt has one of the freshest, most innovative voices I've read in years. I absolutely love his work. His characters are poignant and real. The situations that they deal with are intense, gritty, and often hilarious. He seems to play with juxtaposing deep sadness with humor in this book... I often found myself stunned quiet, then laughing out loud the next minute. I read this book on a plane, and folks in other rows were asking me what book I was reading, because I was laughing so much.

_The Same River Twice_ would round out your appreciation of Chris Offut's work if you were so interested. This book is a memoir, and you get to find out about the mind this author rides around in. It's also a fantastic book.

Enjoy.

The story "Aunt Granny Lith" alone justifies purchase of this book. These stories of rural Appalachia should connect with any reader who grew up far from the city. It's a swath of America that gets too little literary treatment. The characters are coarse, ignorant, and petty, and Offutt succeeds all the more by making them thoroughly human and winning the reader's empathy.

The descriptions of wooded hills, dilapidated shacks, and rutted roads, are piercing and mesmerizing.

The book jacket says that Chris Offutt writes about Kentucky without becoming sentimental. I agree. Some of the stories are so human that they could have taken place anywhere in the world where urban life threatens rural ways centuries old. Other stories are straight out of the hills of Kentucky and he brings to life that little part of the world. He writes about real people without making judgements or using stereotypes which is most refreshing.

A great collection of backwoods Americana. What gets me about some of these stories by Offutt/Brown/Woodrell, et al, is how much more hardboiled they ultimately are than the so-called "bad streets of the city". What makes them more important is how real they all taste (and probably are). The other half not only lives, it will survive.